Of the local races on the ballot last week, the state Senate District 28 was the most bitter and drew more attention. Since the June primary, the two Republican candidates — Riverside County 3rd District Supervisor Jeff Stone and former Assembly member Bonnie Garcia — have debated the issues and challenged each other’s character as…

  Following the June primary, which pitted state Sen. Jeff Stone (R) against incumbent Congressman Raul Ruiz (D), contributions did not pour into Stone’s coffers. At the end of September, Ruiz had more than 20 times the available cash for the final five weeks of the campaign than Stone had. During the three months from…

Idyllwild Arts (IA) has plans to expand its campus facilities, but no ground will be broken or new project started until late spring 2012. A replacement health center will be the first construction. Then, three faculty residences will follow, according to John Newman, dean of students. A multi-million dollar concert hall is part of the…

Martin Baxter, Riverside County medical volunteer coordinator, discussed the county’s medical volunteer program at the monthly meeting of the Mountain Emergency Services Committee. The Nov. 8 meeting at the Idyllwild Fire station was well attended and included professional responders and representatives from disaster volunteer groups from Idyllwild and Anza. MEMSCOMM is the mountaintop’s coordinating committee…